Charulata is a 1964 film directed by Satyajit Ray.
The setting, like most of Ray's work, is his native Bengal. It's 1879 and Charulata is a Calcutta wife, married to Bhupati, a wealthy man who publishes his own newspaper. Bhupati, an Anglophile who likes England so much that he is interested in the British elections of 1880, is entirely dedicated to his newspaper, which is something of a vanity project. He is affectionate and loving towards Charulata but, as he admits himself, neglects her in favor of his paper.
Charulata is left home alone, bored, with nothing to do despite being a woman of high intellect. Her brother Umapada and his wife Manda move in, Umapada to manage the newspaper and Manda to be a companion to Charulata, but Charulata finds the dimwitted Manda dull. Charulata is much more interested when Bhupati's cousin Amal, a charming, witty writer, also comes to stay. Amal is perfectly happy to loaf at his cousin's house, and he and Charulata start spending a lot of time together. Soon, romantic feelings between the neglected wife and the boyishly handsome writer grow—but there's a surprise coming from a completely different direction.
Tropes:
- As You Know: A relationship is explained when Bhupati asks if Umapada has written, and she answers "When does my brother ever write me?"
- Binocular Shot:
- A series of this in the opening sequence, where Charulata, bored senseless in her Gilded Cage, uses opera glasses to watch people passing by in the street below.
- In the garden scene that makes clear that Charulata and Amal are developing feelings for each other, she watches him through those same glasses.
- Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Another way that Bhupati is expressing his love of all things English is the distinguished meerschaum pipe he's always got in his mouth.
- Empathic Environment: Bhupati and Charulata find a letter from Amal, saying that he's left town to look for work. Charulata's hysterical grief after she finds out that the man she's fallen in love with is leaving, is accompanied by the howling winds of a storm that blow open the patio door of the room she's in.
- Facecam: A camera follows Charulata's face as she swings through her Swing Low, Sweet Harriet scene, her flirtatious expression underscoring where her relationship with Amal is going.
- Freeze-Frame Ending: A memorable one. Bhupati has figured out that Charulata fell in love with Amal, and she knows that he knows. They face each other and make tentative expressions. They reach out hands—and the camera freezes with their hands outstretched but not touching. Followed by a freeze frame of her face, then a freeze frame of his face, then another freeze frame from a distance of their hands outstretched and almost touching. The End.
- Foreshadowing: The only hint that Umapada is up to something comes in a scene where he tells Manda that they have to live in the mansion for "only two more months." He absconds with a big chunk of Bhupati's money.
- Gilded Cage: Charulata lives in an opulent mansion, in luxury—but she also lives there alone, with nothing but servants, bored out of her skull. She hardly ever leaves as women of her status don't go about on their own. Emphasized in the opening scene where she is jumping from window to window, using opera glasses to watch the people below in the street, going about their lives.
- Idle Rich: Bhupati says the English have a phrase, "the idle rich", and he's determined to prove them wrong—which helps the audience to understand that he is basically one of the idle rich and that his newspaper is more of a vanity project than something he does for a living.
- Love Triangle: A busy husband, a neglected wife, and the husband's free-spirited cousin, that the wife falls in love with precisely because she's connected.
- Married to the Job: Bhupati, who is a nice guy but clueless about his wife, admits this, saying to Umapada that the newspaper is "your sister's rival."
- Never Learned to Read: It's not clarified that Manda can't read until her last line of dialogue, when she bids Amal goodbye and says to send her his published story, saying "If nothing else I can read your name."
- Principles Zealot: Bhupati is very much a purist, who insists that his newspaper must be all in English, and must not have any "silly news" or "gossip" but must only contain deadly serious coverage of the issues of the day. Of course, since he's filthy rich and the paper is a vanity project it doesn't matter. It's actually a big character growth moment near the end, when he agrees with Charulata that they can work together on a re-launched paper that combines political news in English with literature in Bengali.
- Stealing from the Till: Umapada steals almost all of the money that Bhupati gave him for the paper, takes out more loans under Bhupati's name, and then skips town with Manda.
- Swing Low, Sweet Harriet: A long scene has Amal and Charulata hanging out in the garden of the estate together, her swinging in a swing while he lounges on the grass. The whole scene dramatically underscores their growing romance as they flirt.
